Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a passenger counter for counting the number of passengers who get in and out of a vehicle, such as a bus, a train, and an elevator.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a passenger discrimination/detection device which is provided in, e.g., a bus so as to discriminate/detect getting-on and getting-off of passengers (Patent Application Publication No. 2011-242901). The passenger discrimination/detection device has a first photoelectronic sensor and a second photoelectronic sensor. The first and second photoelectronic sensors are provided in a getting-on/off passage around an inside of a platform and arranged in the mentioned order from a near side of the platform. The first and second photoelectronic sensors are disposed such that optical paths thereof are both interrupted by passengers passing through the getting-on/off passage. A state where the optical paths of both first and second photoelectronic sensors are not interrupted is referred to as “state 0”, a state where the optical path of only the first photoelectronic sensor is interrupted is as “state 1”, a state where the optical paths of both first and second photoelectronic sensors are interrupted is as “state 2”, and a state where the optical path of only the second photoelectronic sensor is interrupted is as “state 3”. When the first and second photoelectronic sensors transit in the order of “state 1”, “state 2”, “state 3”, and “state 0”, the passenger discrimination/detection device discriminates that a passenger gets on a vehicle such a bus and adds 1 to the number of getting-on passengers; on the other hand, when the first and second photoelectronic sensors transit in the order of “state 3”, “state 2”, “state 1”, and “state 0”, the passenger discrimination/detection device discriminates that a passenger gets off the vehicle and adds 1 to the number of getting-off passengers.